Category Archives: jobs

Koch Brothers and Kansas

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Jan Resseger has another excellent post up on her take of the Americans for Prosperity, aka Koch Brothers, and what’s happened in Kansas.

 

Jeff Glendening, the director of the Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity was quoted—framing the legislation as part of a fight between those who stand for children and those who stand for “adult” interests—by the NY Times : “We appreciate the willingness of the Legislature to place the interests of Kansas children over the welfare of the teachers’ union.”  This kind of rhetoric is widely promoted by far-right groups such as StudentsFirst and Stand for Children. These groups try to imply that teachers, who have committed their lives to nurture children, are somehow a class of people working purely out of self interest.

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Incredible.  The teacher’s intentions are an example of a stunning psychological twist of the truth.  They claim to be concerned for the welfare of the children…but with Common Core, shoving special needs and struggling students out the door, and money being siphoned away from public education…we know differently.

As was pointed out yesterday, the teacher’s union is the same as the police and fire fighter unions….yet no one would think of saying that those unions are operating against the welfare of the people.

Related to this, Fred Klonsky has a post up on the pension raids with a statement on  the theft by Karen Lewis.

“This is a sad day for our paraprofessionals, especially our retired ones, who will see their pensions reduced and devalued significantly. They will lose the value of a third of their retirement savings, so instead of the people who crashed the economic system having to pay their fair share, our elected officials brutally attack the people who are most vulnerable—many of whom have become the head of their households, caring for both children and grandchildren,” Lewis said.

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Target the elderly/retired.  They have worked their entire lives putting into the system.  They deserve to have those pensions.  Now that they are retired, they have less money to fight back with–sly ploy by cowards to attack the weaker.

 

 

 

Kansas eliminates due process for Teachers

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What sad times we live in….

As usual, the comments are insightful and compelling.  They bring up the fact that it really isn’t that hard to get rid of “problem” teachers–all the administration has to do is harass them until they’ve had enough and leave.  Done. Problem solved.

I’ve seen this in the state government, as well, so yeah, it’s not really that hard to get rid of someone.  All you need is a bully in the midst while the administration looks the other way (or even worse–participates).

Urged on by conservative special interests such as Americans for Prosperity, Republican leaders pressed hard to eliminate due process rights for teachers.

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The handiwork of the Koch Brothers.  Destroy public education so the Koch brothers don’t have to pay one more penny for unionized workers.  More for me…poverty wages for you…

 

 

 

The Struggles of the Poor

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First, I have to say that I don’t endorse leaving children in vehicles, period.

BUT, if a mother is poor and going to a job interview to get out of poverty, and has no one to turn to…what is she supposed to do?

She’s told to ‘get off her ass and get a job”…but how is she supposed to do that when she has no money to afford day care until she get that job?

Was she supposed to take the children into the interview?  She would have been shot down for the job immediately, especially given all the competition for positions.

“Everything is focused on the mother and understandably so. It seems to be a very compelling human interest story,” County Attorney Bill Montgomery said at a recent news conference. “But I’m equally concerned and compelled about the circumstances those two children were in.”

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Really…?  So, if Shanesha brought the kids to your office, being “concerned and compelled” you would personally watch them while she went to the interview…?  Yeah, I didn’t think so…

With all the obstacles, how exactly are the poor supposed to get out of poverty? Not being arrested is a good start.

Bless Amanda Bishop for looking out for another.

 

 

Canadian assault on unions

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Here is the latest version of the Canadian gov’t assault on unions….the nurses assert that it is taking away their right to strike.

If you recall in my previous post, they were going after the teacher’s unions, as well.

 

Dividing First Nations in other ways…

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Scott Sewell has this up on how things changed when the gaming commissions came to town.  A sly way to divide tribes, eh?

There is just something wrong with giving tribes two choices: nuclear waste or gambling casinos.

But the federal government says to Indian people, “I will recognize your sovereignty if you have either a nuclear or toxic-waste dump or casino.” That’s pretty much the only way you get your sovereignty recognized as Indian people.
Let me be clear about this: We are sovereign. I don’t care if the federal government recognizes me, my nation, and my people. That’s of little consequence to me in the long-term picture. The federal government, as far as I’m concerned, is by and large illegal. Most transactions are illegal. It’s like being recognized by a bunch of hoodlums. But under the law, they recognize your sovereignty in those two things, a dump or a casino. So Indian people are in an ironic situation, in that our choices for economic development are so limited.

In Minnesota, I see two examples. I see a reservation like Mille Lacs. They have two casinos. They built schools, houses, roads, clinics, and community buildings. They bought land. Nobody was going to do that for them. No federal appropriation was going to be made for those Indian people to do that, although their land was mostly taken from them. The federal government is supposed to provide those things for them. That’s not going to happen, so they did that with their casinos, and that’s right. They’re making some long-term investments that are smart. They don’t think those casinos are going to last forever, but they’re doing the right thing.

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I have heard of folks willing their land to a tribe native to the area. Cool.

Here is the Native Harvest website Winona mentions.

And the Indigenous Environmental Network.

The grassroots people of Kul Wicasa oppose the development of the power line infrastructure planned by Basin Electric.  The Lower Brule substation is to be located two miles from the Big Bend Damn.  The thick, corrosive nature of tarsands oil (which in its natural state is the consistency of peanut butter) requires a constant temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit and necessary dilutants to liquify it enough to be slurried through the pipeline. This will require an enormous amount of power.  Basin Electric stated at a public utilities commission meeting in Winner, SD “the pipeline apparently moves oil under 1440 pounds of pressure per square inch. If the line is to move 700,000 barrels of crude per day, each pumping station requires three 6500 hp electric motors running on 17 megawatts of power night and day.  If the flow rate is increased to 900,000 barrels per day, five 6500hp electric motors are required.  That would use 25 megawatts of power.”

This increasing demand for electricity forces the need for the additional power station at Lower Brule. Transmission studies indicate the current system has reached its load limit.   Given the location of the Lower Brule substation, 2 miles south of the Big Bend Damn, it is apparent Missouri River water will be used to produce electricity.

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Soooo…..they toss a few crumbs with wind turbines…but what they don’t tell them is that the pipeline is going to require even more energy…and precious water to move the “peanut butter” through the lines…um-hmmm…

This is just stunning:

…the land isn’t even there now; it’s an oil mine; there was a lake there that was 200 miles long and 100 miles wide.  Now, the elders are saying, for the first time, the shoreline is receding and the rocks at the bottom of the lake are exposed.  Water is being taken from the rivers and lakes to support the destruction by the tarsands mine. 

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It’s really hard to imagine that much water being used.  It’s gone.  No longer usable by humans or animals.

This pipeline would destroy farmland and jobs, contrary to Big Oil myth.  The First Nations are trying to support themselves with the food production, but once again Big Oil has other ideas.  If you know anything about history, the Native Americans were moved to areas out West…once oil was discovered, suddenly they were in the way and once again moved.  This continued on…and now we have the modern day version of it–pollute the land so it is no longer inhabitable.

 

Rahm Emanuel, Propaganda, and CTU

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You would think that Rahm Emanuel would think twice before messing with Karen Lewis, but he apparently hasn’t been, um…schooled.  (sorry, bad pun I know)

She once again delivers a smackdown of the mayor by calling him on the divide-and-conquer politics.

Be sure to click on the links to Fred Klonsky’s blog, which also gives some insight to what is going on in Chicago.  What goes on there, is most certainly going on around the country.  Bless Karen Lewis.

 

Ethnic Cleansing in Chicago Public Schools

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Fred Klonsky has this up on the ethnic cleansing of Chicago Public Schools.  But I would go a step further and say not just ethnic, but prejudice against the poor in general.  They have made it abundantly clear that they don’t believe the poor have any worth or value or potential.

He links to the Chicago Teachers Union website.  This just says it all:

Schools slated for “turn around” include McNair, Dvorak and Gresham elementary schools. At McNair, 52 percent of the staff are African American; at Dvorak 70 percent of the teachers are African Americans; and at Gresham 65 percent of educators are African American. Black students are 97.1 percent of the student body and 98 percent of them are low-income.

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They also make note that most of the educators are in their 40s and 50s–a favorite target of the schools-for-fun-and-profit mob.  Get rid of the higher paid older folk, and you can a) pay younger ones much, much less, and b) get more compliant employees who are desperate for a job and will subject kids to enforced abusive testing because without a union to help them protest, they’re SOL.

 

 

Another model comes forward on Terry Richardson

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Another model has come forward on being allegedly sexually assaulted by sleazebag photographer Terry Richardson. My prior post on him here.

This report explains one of the manipulative techniques of Richardson–calling the girl a prude and telling her she needs to loosen up.   I’m glad to see a couple of models formerly photographed by Richardson are taking positive action against this predator.

And the question of the hour is…why do people, especially celebrities, who have a lot going for them, are intelligent and compassionate,  associate themselves with this manipulative exploitative creep?

He is a dark one.   He is beneath contempt.  Associating with him and promoting him is feeding the dark side, in my opinion. It’s saying that his behavior is acceptable…it’s okay.  And it’s not.

It’s a crazy experience to celebrate the female body as beautiful, and then degrade her because she’s a woman.  Crazy.

So much of what is wrong in the world today is by the degradation of women.  Wars, violence, greed,  all thrive because the feminine–the softness, compassion, empathy, nurturing, and nature–is not respected.  Not given equal weight.  Not honored.

For example, the Earth, which is feminine, is stripped of oil and then left polluted and scarred…not unlike sexual violence.  Wars are the same.

We all can be violent or compassionate.  We can feed the dark or light.  It’s our choice, our free will.

Jeffrey Thompson charged **edited

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Jeffrey Thompson is apparently deeply involved in D.C. politics and has been charged with violating local and federal campaign finance laws.

One campaign he contributed to was Hillary Clinton. Damn, I guess she’ll have to get another donor to finance her presidential campaign…

I’ll bet he’s regretting that cool $500k he spent on her ill-fated campaign….just think of the people that money would have fed..housed…gotten medical care for…sent through a pretty decent college…employed in a job for years…but we can’t do that, can we?  We need to spend millions on campaigns.

Washington Post also has the story here.

**edited to change wording.  I called Clinton a client in error.  Chalk it up to Spring Fever. Oy.

Chicago Teachers Under Fire

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Ken Previtti has this up on the bullying of Chicago Teachers….a modern day twist of McCarthyism, where if you don’t tow the line, you’re blacklisted via losing certification.

Democracy, meet dictatorship.

This is unconscionable.    The teachers refuse to subject the kids to it. The parents don’t want it. And the kids certainly don’t benefit from it.  As Ken states, the only people that benefit are the education profiteer$ who sell the test prep, the tests, scoring the tests, and anything else they can think of to profit.

Are the parents not taxpayers? Are the teachers not taxpayers? And the public taxpayer who does not want CCSS?  Again I ask, if the taxpayers don’t want this…then why are their wishes being ignored?

Meanwhile, in Indiana, they are going to push online learning to make up for all the snow days we had this winter….nice way to shoehorn the kids into online learning…

…and get rid of teachers altogether.